Vibratory conveyor and abrader

ABSTRACT

A vibratory conveyor and abrader has a vibrated feed path covered with a pile material having resilient bristles inclined toward the direction of feed to move objects along. The pile material includes bristles having particles of an abrasive material extending to the tips of the bristles, and the device is arranged for urging the objects into abrasive engagement with the abrasive bristles as the objects move in the direction of feed for evenly abrading the objects as they proceed. This is done by impeding the motion of the objects in the direction of feed, having the abrasive bristles oppose the motion of the objects while non-abrasive bristles feed the objects, rotating the objects around a vertical axis as the objects move in a direction of feed, using combinations of abrasive and non-abrasive bristles inclined at angles relative to each other, or using a guide rail and inclining bristles to roll the objects along the guide rail as the objects move in the direction of feed.

United States Patent [19] Armstrong 1 May 27, 1975 1 VIBRATORY CONVEYOR AND ABRADER [75] Inventor: Jack W. Armstrong, Baldwinsville,

22 Filed: June 20, 1974 [21] Appl. No.: 481,124

Primary ExaminerI-Iarold D. Whitehead Attorney, Agent, or FirmStonebraker, Shepard & Stephens [57] ABSTRACT A vibratory conveyor and abrader has a vibrated feed path covered with a pile material having resilient bristles inclined toward the direction of feed to move objects along. The pile material includes bristles having particles of an abrasive material extending to the tips of the bristles, and the device is arranged for urging the objects into abrasive engagement with the abrasive bristles as the objects move in the direction of feed for evenly abrading the objects as they proceed. This is done by impeding the motion of the objects in the direction of feed, having the abrasive bristles oppose the motion of the objects while non-abrasive bristles feed the objects, rotating the objects around a vertical axis as the objects move in a direction of feed, using combinations of abrasive and non-abrasive bristles inclined at angles relative to each other, or using a guide rail and inclining bristles to roll the objects along the guide rail as the objects move in the direction of feed.

11 Claims, 13 Drawing Figures SHEET c 113? 2 /////////////////l/l//l////////////////l//////l// FIG-8 Pmx-iminwz v 3,885,356

SHEET CEUF 2 1 VIBRATORY CONVEYOR AND ABRADER THE INVENTIVE IMPROVEMENT Both abrading techniques and conveyors for moving objects about are generally known in the art, and it often happens that objects require both abrading and movement from one place to another. The invention involves recognition of a way that the abrading and conveying can be combined in a single conveyor that not only moves the objects along toward their destination, but accomplishes the desired abrading while the objects are enroute. This saves a separate abrading station and separate abrading equipment and simplifies and economizes on the total process by combining the abrasion with the conveying in a simple and efficient system. The invention generally aims at economy, reliability, simplicity, and effectiveness in both abrading and conveying objects simultaneously.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The inventive vibratory conveyor and abrader includes a support element extending along a direction of feed and means for vibrating the support element in a vertical plane in the direction of feed. Pile material on the upper surface of the support element has resilient bristles of uniform length inclined from the vertical so the tips of the bristles support objects to be fed and the bristles flex under the objects as the support element vibrates to move the objects in the direction of feed. The pile material includes bristles having particles of an abrasive material extending to the tips of the bristles, and the device includes means for urging the objects into abrasive engagement with the abrasive bristles as the objects move in a direction of feed for evenly abrading the objects.

DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a partially schematic, partially cut-away, side-elevational view of a preferred embodiment of the inventive conveyor and abrader;

FIGS. 2-7 are partially schematic, plan views of bris tle pile arrangements for the device of FIG. 1 to accomplish the desired conveying and abrading in various preferred ways;

FIG. 8 is a partially schematic, elevational view of another preferred embodiment of a conveyor and abrader according to the invention;

FIGS. 9 and 10 are partially schematic, plan views of bristle pile arrangements for the device of FIG. 1 to accomplish the desired conveying and abrading in other preferred ways;

FIGS. 11 and 12 are fragmentary, cross-sectional views taken respectively along the line 11-11 of FIG. 9 and l212 of FIG. 10; and

FIG. 13 is a fragmentary, partially schematic, elevational view of another preferred embodiment of a conveyor and abrader according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The inventive conveyor and abrader 10 as shown in FIG. 1 is a vibratory device using inclined bristle pile 11. A base 12 supports a vibrator 13 for vibrating a support element 15 in a vertical plane extending along the direction of feed of support element 15. Bristle pile material 11 covers the upper surface of support element 15 and includes resilient bristles of uniform length inclined from the vertical toward the direction of feed.

The inclination of bristles 11 from the vertical is preferably from 5 to 25, and the vibration angle of vibrator 23 is preferably from 10 to 20 from the vertical toward the direction of feed. Also, the vibration angle of vibrator 13 is preferably within 10 of the inclination angle of pile bristles ll. Pile bristles 11 then support objects on the bristle tips and flex under the objects as the support element vibrates to move the objects forcefully along in the direction of feed. Flexible or springy legs 14 help uphold support member 15, and there are many ways that vibrators and supports can be arranged for vibrating pile bristles 11 to achieve the desired effect.

As shown in FIGS. 2-7, a special type of bristle pile material 16 is used to accomplish abrading along with the feeding in the inventive device. Bristle pile material 16 is similar to bristle pile material 11, except that the bristles 16 include particles of an abrasive material. Several different abrasive materials such as silicone carbide particles and aluminum oxide particles can be formed in different sizes or grits and incorporated directly into bristles 16.

The abrasive particles in bristles 16 extend to the tips of bristles 16 so that as the bristles wear down in use, a succession of abrasive particles is exposed at the bristle tips for abrading objects. Bristles 16 are also of uniform length and can either stand vertically upright or be uniformly inclined from the vertical by 5 to 25 in the same way as bristles l1. Bristles 16 can also be resilient and flexible to have a feeding effect on objects, as well as an abrasive effect.

Bristle pile material 16 is arranged along conveyor 10 so that objects being fed along the conveyor are urged into abrasive engagement with bristles 16 for evenly abrading the bottom of the objects as they proceed in the feed direction. Either resistance to the feeding force of bristles 16, or movement relative to bristles 16 is preferred for accomplishing a scrubbing abrasive action on the bottoms of the objects as they pass over bristles 16. Depending on the shape and character of the objects being fed and the nature of the abrasive action desired, a satisfactory result can be achieved in several ways.

FIG. 2 shows strips of non-abrasive bristle pile material 11 extending along conveyor side rails 17 and 18 with bristles 11 oriented toward the direction of feed as indicated by the arrows. An off-center strip of abrasive bristle material 16 extends along the conveyor and has bristles inclinedobliquely to the direction of feed as indicated by the arrows. The inside of side rail 17 is covered with a high-friction material 19, such as a rubberlike material or the illustrated relatively short-bristled pile material 19. The result of such an arrangement is that disk shaped object 20 is urged toward side rail 17 and into rotating engagement with pile material 19 so that the bottom of object 20 turns uniformly over abrasive bristles 16 as object 20 proceeds in the direction of feed. The bottom of object 20 is then uniformly abraded by bristles 16. The bristles of pile material 19 are preferably inclined opposite to the direction of feed to provide a high-frictional engagement with the periphery of object 20 to enhance its rolling motion along side rail 17. The bottom of object 20 then rotates and slides or scrubs over abrasive bristles 16 as object 20 proceeds.

The abrasive action of bristles 16 can scour or scrub or deburr or remove thin flashings or coatings, and if the conveyor is made sufficiently long, and if objects are relatively heavy, considerable abrasion can be accomplished. One preferred use for the inventive device is in abrading away a glaze coating from the bottom rim of a ceramic dish before the glaze coating is fired so as to insure that the glaze coating does not contact and stick to the kiln during firing. Careful abrading away of the glaze coating from the bottom rim of ceramicware is required to protect the kiln, and the inventive conveyor accomplishes this very simply as the ceramicware is fed along toward the kiln. Particles of glaze material fall harmlessly down between bristles 16 and 11 and are periodically removed, such as by washing or vacuum cleaning. The inventive conveyor and abrader thus eliminates a separate abrasion step and accomplishes the necessary abrasion while feeding the objects along automatically toward their destination.

A similar result is achieved by the embodiment of FIG. 3 showing alternating strips of non-abrasive bristles 11 and abrasive bristles 16 having respective bristles inclined as indicated by the arrows for rolling a disk shaped object along side rail 17. The inclination of the bristles of strips 11 and 16 can be interchanged from the illustrated pattern to accomplish the same result, and abrasive bristle strips 16 accomplish the desired abrasion as objects roll along side rail 17 as they proceed in the feed direction.

Rotation of objects 20 can also be accomplished by the arrangement of FIG. 4 where abrasive bristle strip 16 extends down the middle of the conveyor with bris tles inclined toward the direction of feed, and nonabrasive bristle strips 11 on either side of strip 16 have bristles inclined in opposite directions so that one of the strips 11 is inclined toward the direction of feed and the other strip 11 is inclined opposite the direction of feed. As long as object 20 is wide enough to rest on all three strips, then two of the strips urge it toward the feed direction, and the strip having reversely inclined bristles urges one edge of object 20 in the opposite direction to rotate object 20 as indicated by the arrow. Inclinations oblique to the direction of feed can also be used to enhance the rotational motion of object 20.

Abrasion is accomplished in the embodiment of FIG. 5 without rotating object 21 which proceeds in a direction of feed because of the forward inclination of bristles 11 in strips transverse to the feed path. Abrasive bristles 16 in relatively narrow transverse strips alternate with non-abrasive bristle strips 11, and bristles 16 are inclined opposite to the direction of feed to abrade the bottom of object 21 as it is forced over abrasive bristles 16 by the more numerous bristles 11 inclined in the direction of feed. Object 21 preferably has sufficient fore and aft length so that bristles 11 can push it over the abrasive bristle strip 16.

The embodiment of FIG. 6 is similar to the embodiment of FIG. 5, except that abrasive bristles 16 are in strips that are angled relative to the direction of feed established by bristle strips 1 l, and the abrasive bristles of strip 16 obliquely oppose the forward motion of an object. The forward feed direction established by nonabrasive bristle strips 11 in FIG. 7 is crossed by generally V-shaped abrasive bristle strips 16 that have bristles obliquely inclined toward the feed direction and obliquely inclined in opposition to the feed direction to establish a rotational motion of the object along side rail 17.

As FIGS. 2-7 suggest, many other arrangements of abrasive and non-abrasive bristles can be used for urging objects into abrasive engagement with abrasive bristles 16 and such arrangements can include scrubbing motion of the object relative to the abrasive bristles, rotation of the object on a vertical axis as it proceeds in a direction of feed, or abrasive bristle opposition to the forward motion of the object or any other motion desired for any particular object. Also combinations of relative motions and abrasive bristle oppositions or impedances can be used for the particular scrubbing desired.

Another way of urging an object into abrasive engagement with abrasive bristles 16 is schematically shown in FIG. 8 where object 22 is pressed downward slightly and impeded in its forward motion by pile material 23 superposed over abrasive bristle pile material 16. The entire conveyor can be covered with abrasive bristle material 16, and pile material 23 is preferably flexible enough to allow forward motion of object 22, but to impede the progress of object 22 so that bristles 16 abrade the bottom of object 22 as it moves forward more slowly than if pile material 23 were not present. Pile material 23 can also be shaped or inclined to move object 22 in a desired path to insure even abrasion of its bottom, and bristles 16 can have an inclination pattern for rotating object 22 as it moves forward to insure that the bottom of object 22 is evenly abraded. Pile 23 can be inclined in the opposite direction to the feed direction to scrub over the top of object 22, and pile 23 in any desired inclination can be all or partially formed of abrasive bristles 16 to abrade the top and bottom of object 22 at the same time. Materials other than pile can also be used to impede object 22, and devices such as friction rollers or skids can also be employed. Also, the pile or other impedance device can serve to press object 22 downward against abrasive bristles 16 to enhance the abrasive action.

The abrasive bristle material can be formed of vertically upright bristles rather than inclined bristles, and FIGS. 9 and 10 show two preferred embodiments of the inventive conveyor and abrader using upright bristle pile material 25. Strips of non-abrasive bristle material 11 are arranged along side rails 17 and 18 in a manner similar to the arrangement of FIG. 2, except that an eccentric longitudinal strip of bristle pile material 25 has straight upright bristles rather than inclined bristles. Also, the feed path is periodically interrupted by oblique channels 26 connecting between side channels 27 and 28 where the support element is clear of any pile material to form grooves or gutters for removal of material abraded away from objects. The preferred vibration of the support element urges the abraded material along in the direction of feed, and channels 26-28 provide pathways for the abraded material which can then be collected at the output end of the conveyor.

The conveyor and abrader of FIG. 10 is similar to the embodiment of FIG. 3, except for using upright abrasive bristle material 25 in oblique strips alternating between non-abrasive pile material 11 oriented slightly obliquely to the direction of feed for rolling objects along guide rail 17. Pile-free channels 26-28 are also provided between the pile material for conveying dust or abraded particles to the output end of the conveyor. The cross-sectional views of FIGS. 11 and 12 show the difference between upright bristle pile material 25 and inclined, non-abrasive bristle material 11.

The embodiment of FIG. 3 shows upright bristle pile material 25 arranged over feed pile material 11 for abrading the top of an object 29 that is fed along in the direction of the arrow. Feed pile material 11 can also include a pattern of bristle pile material 16 or 25 for abrading both the bottom and the top of object 29.

Persons wishing to practice the invention should remember that other embodiments and variations can be adapted to particular circumstances. Even though one point of view is necessarily chosen in describing and defining the invention, this should not inhibit broader or related embodiments going beyond the semantic orientation of this application but falling within the spirit of the invention. For example, those skilled in the art will appreciate the many ways that abrasive bristles can be used alone or in combination with non-abrasive bristles to abrade the bottoms of various objects with the desired motions and to the desired extent automatically as the objects are fed from one station to another.

I claim:

1. A vibratory conveyor and abrader comprising:

a. a support element extending along a direction of feed;

b. means for vibrating said support element in a vertical plane in said direction of feed;

0. pile material on the upper surface of said support element, said pile material having resilient bristles of uniform length inclined from the vertical, the tips of said bristles supporting objects to be fed, and said bristles flexing under said objects as said support element vibrates to move said objects in said direction of feed;

d. said pile material including resilient abrasive bristles of uniform length having particles of an abrasive material extending to said tips of said abrasive bristles; and

e. means for urging said objects into abrasive engagement with said abrasive bristles as said objects move in said direction of feed for evenly abrading said objects.

2. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises means for impeding said motion of said objects in said direction of feed.

3. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises a non-abrasive portion of said bristles urging said objects in said direction of feed and said abrasive bristles having an inclination opposing said motion of said objects in said direction of feed.

4. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises means for rotating said objects around a generally vertical axis as said objects move in said direction of feed.

5. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises a first region of a non-abrasive portion of said bristles adjacent a second region of said abrasive bristles with said bristles in said first and second regions being inclined at angles relative to each other.

6. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 including a guide rail extending along said support element and wherein said urging means comprises inclination of said bristles to roll said objects along said guide rail as said objects move in said direction of feed.

7. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 including a high friction material on said guide rail.

8. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises a non-abrasive portion of said bristles urging said objects in said direction of feed and said abrasive bristles being upstanding in a pattern traversed by said objects.

9. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said abrasive bristles are inclined from the vertical to move said objects in said direction of feed.

10. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein a portion of said upper surface of said support element is clear of said pile material for conveying material removed from said objects.

11. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said abrasive bristles are arranged above said support element and directed toward said support element for abrading upper surfaces of said objects. 

1. A vibratory conveyor and abrader comprising: a. a support element extending along a direction of feed; b. means for vibrating said support element in a vertical plane in said direction of feed; c. pile material on the upper surface of said support element, said pile material having resilient bristles of uniform length inclined from the vertical, the tips of said bristles supporting objects to be fed, and said bristles flexing under said objects as said support element vibrates to move said objects in said direction of feed; d. said pile material including resilient abrasive bristles of uniform length having particles of an abrasive material extending to said tips of said abrasive bristles; and e. means for urging said objects into abrasive engagement with said abrasive bristles as said objects move in said direction of feed for evenly abrading said objects.
 2. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises means for impeding said motion of said objects in said direction of feed.
 3. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises a non-abrasive portion of said bristles urging said objects in said direction of feed and said abrasive bristles having an inclination opposing said motion of said objects in said direction of feed.
 4. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises means for rotating said objects around a generally vertical axis as said objects move in said direction of feed.
 5. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises a first region of a non-abrasive portion of said bristles adjacent a second region of said abrasive bristles with said bristles in said first and second regions being inclined at angles relative to each other.
 6. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 including a guide rail extending along said support element and wherein said urging means comprises inclination of said bristles to roll said objects along said guide rail as said objects move in said direction of feed.
 7. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 including a high friction material on said guide rail.
 8. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said urging means comprises a non-abrasive portion of said bristles urging said objects in said direction of feed and said abrasive bristles being upstanding in a pattern traversed by said objects.
 9. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said abrasive bristles are inclined from the vertical to move said objects in said direction of feed.
 10. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein a portion of said upper surface of said support element is clear of said pile material for conveying material removed from said objects.
 11. The vibratory conveyor and abrader of claim 1 wherein said abrasive bristles are arranged above said support element and directed toward said support element for abrading upper surfaces of said objects. 